Heavy duty grinders which are the subject of this invention consist of a food movement tube containing an auger which drives the food toward a perforated die plate. Knives which turn with the auger are biased against the face of the die plate and shear off food particles as they become embedded in the perforations of the die plate, thus effecting the desired grinding action.
One frequent problem with this system is the need to adjust the position of the knife assembly with respect to the perforated plate when one or both of those parts become worn. When bony meat or other materials containing hard parts are ground in the grinder, such wear is quite rapid. Thus, it becomes desirable to provide means to adjust the bias of the knife assembly against the perforated plate of the grinder, without disassembling the grinder. Furthermore, it is desirable that the parts of the bias adjustment mechanism to isolated from the flow of moving food material as much as possible, for sanitary reasons. In the past, any adjustment was internal and required disassembly, and frequently was capable of trapping food particles as well.
My preliminary search disclosed U.S. Pat. Nos. 545,785; 1,021,000; 2,061,005; 2,380,364; 3,536,115; 2,665,725; 3,542,104; Re. 21,817; and Austrian Pat. No. 43,279; British Pat. No. 16,078; and 110,131; Danish Pat. No. 25,071; and German Pat. No. 422,975.